Illuminating Ideas - SISU: The Innovation Institute at NMU

Innovation Funding (IF) is divided into three categories:

• Discovery: Smaller grants for exploration of new opportunities
• Re-Innovation: Funding for redirection or reimagining of existing programs or services
• Innovation Implementation: Ideas that are ready to take to scale

Note: The application is uniform across all IF categories. The SISU IF Review Committee recognizes that projects will be at different stages of development, resulting in varying levels of detail. This will be taken into account during the application review process.

SISU: the Innovation Institute at NMU has announced the recipients of 2023-2024 Innovation Funding. 

Recipients include...

Lori Malnor

Fall Protection Training
A structure built in the CEWD Lab to serve as a location for our on-campus safety training and be offered to large clients across the UP

Sarah Mittlefehldt
 
NMU Woodshed
To explore the possibilities for heating locally in the UP with collaborative research project to examine the technical challenges associated with NMU’s wood boiler along with broader issues pertaining to sustainable wood-based bioenergy production.

Lin Fang

UX Research & Training Center
Propose to create a User Experience (UX) Research and Training Center, for the purpose of training students with various backgrounds to better prepare for their careers associated with UX research.

Carley Leanes

CJ Crime Scene Immersive Experience
Purchase a modular temporary wall system that will be utilized to create a novel, versatile, modifiable experiential learning environment that will enable the collaborators on this project to construct realistic scenario environments.

SISU: the Innovation Institute at NMU has announced the recipients of 2022-2023 Innovation Funding. 

Recipients include...

Steve VandenAvond, Ph.D
Associate Provost for Extended Learning and Community Engagement & Dean, College of Technology and Occupational Sciences
60-year Curriculum
The 60-Year Curriculum (Dede & Richards, 2020) is a lifelong learning model that the Division of Extended Learning and Community Engagement (ELCE) is implementing. This involves creating lifelong learning pathways containing both credit and non-credit credentials over a 60-year period between high school and the end of the working years. Following the introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a number of non-accredited education providers (Coursera, EdX) and businesses (Google, LinkedIn) have developed non-credit credential systems, many of which can be articulated into academic credit.

David Nyberg, J.D.
Executive Director, Business Engagement and Economic Development, NMU 
Rural Leadership Fellowship
The Rural Leadership Fellowship is a paid, scholarship-supported applied learning experience for students interested in rural economic development and public sector careers. Student fellows will be mentored by experienced leaders in planning and executing a project in the U.P. that has been identified as an economic development priority. The mentorship network and administration of the program is a public-private partnership with InvestUP, a non-profit economic development organization supported by the region’s major employers to drive prosperity across the U.P. Fellowships will be awarded annually through a competitive application process for a two-year pilot with an objective to sustain the program based on response and demand. Fellowships will include full in-state tuition scholarships and cash stipends.

Emera Bridger Wilson, Ph.D.
Collection Management Librarian, NMU
Open Educational Resources
This program will encourage faculty to incorporate Open Educational Resources (OER) into their coursework. The objectives for this idea in the first year is to raise awareness about OER amongst faculty and provide resources to help them use OER in the classroom in the form of workshops. It has been shown that using OERs decrease the cost of courses for students and can improve retention. Many students do not buy texts that are too expensive and therefore they are unable to be as successful as they could be if they had class materials. OERs are often more accessible and inclusive than their standard textbook counterparts. OERs also allow faculty to have greater control over course materials, leading to greater academic freedom and workplace satisfaction.

Jane C. Harris, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Forensic Anthropology, NMU
Forensic Science Program
We are proposing the development of a Forensic Science Program (interdisciplinary major) that, when finalized, will prepare NMU students for a career or graduate study in forensic science. The academic program that we seek to develop will provide NMU students with a strong foundation rooted in the hard sciences and quantitative analysis methods, in addition to exposing them to practical experience and education in various applied forensic science disciplines. This major will provide NMU students a direct pipeline to conduct original research at FROST, if that is their desire; it will also provide an option for students to study non-taphonomy-based sciences if FROST research is not something they want to pursue.

Jes thompson, Ph.D.
Professor, College of Business; Sustainability Advisory Council, Co-Chair, NMU
SHINE
SHINE is an interdisciplinary hub to improve sustainability-related communication, coordination, and education on campus in order to attract and retain students. The next generation of Wildcats are seeking institutions that commit to sustainability – including environmental, social and economic equity. SHINE will be responsible for the following: 1) NMU’s Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS) audit and Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) membership; 2) communicating and coordinating sustainability-related efforts across divisions and departments in appropriate forums; 3) facilitating experiential learning through internships and projects; 4) advising and providing operational support to EcoReps; and 5) developing sustainability-related online micro-credentials and certifications in partnership with the Marquette Outdoor Venture (MOV) Innovation Center (funded by the USDA-RISE grant).
 

Jill Leonard
Biology Department Head & Professor, NMU
STEM Short Course
Explore and develop processes to offer a wide variety of science-related short courses that can be offered at unusual times (e.g. shoulder seasons, spring break, weekends, etc). The project is designed to evaluate the parameters within which these courses would be offered including student housing and financial aid, faculty pay, co-offering credit and continuing ed, risk mitigation, etc. so that we can standardize and make simple the offering of these courses by faculty. Also, we will explore the idea of micro-credentialing based on these courses. We think that short courses will be highly attractive to students (current and prospective), as well as community members, and offer short, intensive transformative experiences. They also have the potential to offer greater support to retention initiatives and research/scholarship through focused skills training.

Lindsay Haukkala
Asst Dir-McNair Scholars, College of Graduate Studies, NMU
Undergrad Research Fellows
An Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program open to all NMU undergrads. 10 selected fellows will participate, earning $2,000 paid out as they complete work. Replicate the success of the Freshman Fellowship Program, but extend eligibility for students beyond freshmen. Undergraduate research is already done on campus, but there isn’t a centralized location to oversee and assist efforts. The long-term goal of the Program is to create a one-stop hub for students who are interested in undergraduate research, under the College of Graduate Education and Research.

Randal Klitzke
Associate Professor of Automotive Technology, NMU
EV & HEV Auto Curriculum
Automotive faculty desire university support to strategically explore curriculum enhancement and / or new pathways targeting skill training related to modern and emerging Electric Vehicle (EV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) technologies. Resources for professional development, technology tools, and training materials are sought for implementation into the program to both reimage current curriculum and to develop new pathways for student success. Key points of focus include safety, collaboration with internal and external partners, and establishing a program of excellence to attract students from across the region including major metropolitan areas commonplace with these modes of transportation.
 

Robyn Stille
Exec. Director of Alumni Relations, NMU
Nichole Braska
Asst. Director of Admissions, NMU
Alumni Ambassadors
Alumni are our best ambassadors, and we need to leverage their pride in NMU. Their reflections on their experiences cannot be duplicated by professional staff, and they can provide a unique perspective. Additionally, enrollment is one of the most frequently requested ways alumni want to help the university. Alumni are assisting with recruitment, but in more of an ad-hoc way as opportunities arise as opposed to a holistic approach. In recent years Admissions and Alumni staff and alumni volunteers have brainstormed new ideas for engaging alumni in recruitment. Our proposal is to pilot some of these new ideas to identify those that yield the most benefit and work those initiatives into base budgeting to provide some consistency in programming.

Stephanie Zadroga-Langlois
Director, Continuing Ed. and Workplace Development, NMU
Steve VandenAvond, Ph.D
Associate Provost for Extended Learning and Community Engagement & Dean, College of Technology and Occupational Sciences

Van Life
This project, which would be the first of its kind in the nation, would use retrofitted “van life” vans as experiential learning environments for NMU students. Vans will be equipped for a full “residence” experience and will allow students who live in them to study anywhere in the continental United States. The first stage of the project will involve short-term experiences in which students travel to specific locations that pertain to certain courses in which they are enrolled. For example, students in environmental science or geography courses might study from a national park. The long-term vision for the vanlife project would be for NMU to own a fleet of vans (20) for students to have semester-long, off-campus learning experiences. The project will also include the creation of educational credentials regarding retrofitting vans. We will begin by developing a non-credit credential that will be offered in the summer of 2023.

In order to be approved, all programs had to go through a design thinking workshop centered around their IF, which included a diverse range of area experts. Project champions will be reporting progress on their projects quarterly. The projects not chosen were given action items to further develop their ideas for the future and an opportunity to attend a design thinking workshop focusing on their idea.

SISU: the Innovation Institute at NMU has announced the recipients of 2021-2022 Program Incentive Funds. Five programs have been chosen to move on to the next steps of innovation. 

Recipients include...

• Upper Peninsula Cybersecurity Institute (UPCI) to fund the creation of a NMU Automotive Cybersecurity Certificate program.
  • Project Champion: Doug Miller, Director, UPCI
• Center for Teaching and Learning to assemble a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to explore the HyFlex, a course delivery model combining face-to-face (F2F) and online learning.
  • Project Champion: Matt Smock, Director of Instructional Design and Technology
• Fresh Water, Fresh Voices, a collaboration between English Graduate Programs, Earth, Environmental, & Geographical Studies (EEGS) and Fresh Coast Film Festival. This will produce a local conference offering an "interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunity that centers on NMU's unique landscape and established leadership in sustainability and graduate writing programs."
  • Project Champion: Dr. Rachel May, Associate Professor of English
• Indoor Agriculture Program to assist in the creation of a Commercial Crop Lab in the former Aviation hangar located at NMU's Jacobetti Complex.
  • Project Champion: Evan Lucas, Assistant Professor of Technology and Occupational Sciences
• Construction Management and Trimball Labs to enhance learning activities by incorporating new virtual reality technology and developing higher quality labs for a new fully online degree.
  • Project Champion: Evan Lucas, Assistant Professor of Technology and Occupational Sciences

In order to be approved, all programs had to go through a design thinking workshop centered around their PIF, which included a diverse range of area experts. Project champions will be reporting progress on their projects quarterly. The projects not chosen were given action items to further develop their ideas for the future and an opportunity to attend a design thinking workshop focusing on their idea.